


Alto clef and confidence

by orphan_account



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Band, Gen, band au, instead of killing there is MUSIC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:22:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21805843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kaede gets everyone to start a band.
Relationships: kaede akamatsu & shuichi saihara
Kudos: 13





	Alto clef and confidence

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY this is the first fic I've written in what. years I think? it's been a while since I've written last is what I mean. so there is bound to be a lot of errors so please forgive me for that,,,
> 
> b but! this is! a band au!! I literally came up with this on a whim to distract me from class so. we'll see how it goes,,,
> 
> i'll add tags as we go along,,,i don't think there'll be a lot of ships in this?? but we'll see heehee,,  
> anyway!! I hope you enjoy!!!!

“Hey, Shuichi? Have you ever played an instrument?” Kaede’s question was small, and nobody really heard her except Shuichi, who was sitting to her right in the dining hall. Tsumugi, to her left, seemed to be daydreaming again, the reason why she wasn’t listening. Everyone else seemed too busy amongst themselves to listen to them, too.

“H-huh? Oh, me? I-I...yeah, I have. I was nowhere near as good as you, though…” He seemed to be a bit red, admitting that, though it was hard to tell with the hat in the way.

“Oh, shush, you. You were probably amazing. Have more confidence in yourself!” She assured him. “What instrument was it?”

“Viola,” Shuichi whispered, barely audible. Maybe he was really embarrassed about this. Kaede couldn’t see why. Music was something beautiful, and something to be proud of.

“Really?” She cried. “That’s amazing, Shuichi!”

“I-is it? I mostly just did what my teacher told me to do…”

“Oh, no, really, it is! I always wanted to learn a string instrument! Though piano may count, since the keys are connected to strings…I guess not though, since they are classified as percussion instruments a lot. People say they’re both, though.”

“...You just know that off the top of your head?”

“You don’t?”

Unable to think of something else to say, Shuichi shook his head and looked around the table. With that, a comfortable silence fell between the two as they watched the chaos reign, both leaving together when they were done eating. The two went their separate ways from there; Kaede off to investigate her lab some more, mostly just to play the piano, and Shuichi off to hang out with a couple other students. Shuichi agreed to meet Kaede back at her lab in about an hour.

After an hour of trying to get Rantaro to open up about his feelings (it didn’t work), Shuichi entered Kaede’s lab; it was covered in music notes, truly keeping with the piano aesthetic. There was a grand piano in the middle of the room on a raised stage. With rows and rows of containers containing sheet music (both blank and written on), it definitely kept the aura of a piano prodigy.

She was looking around in a closet Shuichi hadn’t noticed before; it was next to a large white board that was covered in hand-written music notes, presumably written by Kaede. “Kaede? Wh-where are you?”

“Huh?” She poked her head out of the closet, blonde hair shining from the natural light coming from the windows. “I’m in here! Come on!” She gestured for Shuichi to follow before darting back into the room.

Shuichi stumbled toward the closet, doing his best not to trip too much on the forces that wanted him to trip so much. When he got to the door, he peered in to see rows and rows of musical instruments across the walls. Kaede was looking at the string section. 

Shuichi stared around in awe, his jaw dropped. “You like it?” Kaede asked. “I found this room by accident, haha.” She smiled sheepishly. “I was looking around the lab for some music, just as a distraction from being trapped with only strangers, and then I saw that door! So I thought, well, might as well go in! And then I kind of got sidetracked until you showed up. But look!” She pointed at a violin on the wall. “A viola!”

“...Kaede? That’s not a viola.”

“...Oh.”

“You see the thin string to the far right? That’s an E string; violas don’t have those. Violas have a C string, which goes on the far left. The rest of the strings are moved over one place to the right, so the highest string a viola has is an A string.”

“I didn’t know you knew that much about viola, Shuichi.”

“W-well, I’m pretty sure that’s common knowledge…”

“Well, I didn’t know that, and I’m a giant music freak!” Kaede giggled.

“It probably just slipped your mind.”

“I swear, I didn’t know!”

“Everyone else probably does, then.”

“Do you really believe that?”

Shuichi shrugged. “We can ask.”

“Then let’s!” Kaede took his hand and led him out of the music room. Shuichi stumbled behind, trying his best not to trip.  
~  
So maybe nobody but Shuichi knew the difference.

The only ones to get it right was Kiyo and Kiibo (Kiyo due to his extensive knowledge of all instruments, not just strings, and Kiibo got it with the help of his database. Kaede and Shuichi did have to wait for a moment for Kiibo to access the information), and the rest with different bumbling reasons as to why they didn’t know (Kaito, Tsumugi, Kirumi, Maki, Ryoma, and Gonta were all honest in the fact they didn’t know; Rantaro and Kokichi both insisted they had it “on the tip of their tongue”; Miu, Tenko, Himiko, and Angie had varying levels of uninterest).

“See? I told you not everyone knew!” Kaede didn’t wait a moment to rub it in Shuichi’s face.

“Two people did.” Shuichi looked at the ground and clasped his left hand on his opposite arm.

“Shuichi.” Kaede put her hands on his shoulders, making his hands drop and look her square in the face, or as much as he could with his hat in the way. “You knew, and almost nobody else did. That means you have knowledge and skills nobody else has, Shuichi! Believe in yourself, for once!”

“I don’t know…”

“If you won’t, I’ll believe in you enough for the both of us,” Kaede retorted wholeheartedly. “I have plenty of energy to go around, anyway.”

“O-oh...Mm,” Shuichi replied, looking the other way, a bit red now. His hat head most of it though. “C-can you let go?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah! Sure, sure.” Kaede released the grip on Shuichi’s shoulders--she hadn’t realized she’d gripped him so tightly--and dropped them to her sides. “Do you think you’ll pick up viola again?”

“Maybe I will…”

“Really?!”

“H-huh?” Shuichi squeaked.

“Oh, yeah, you don’t do well with loud noises, sorry.”

“You didn’t mean it, it’s okay...a-and yeah, maybe I will…”

“Oh, I can’t believe it! Really really? You promise?” Kaede launched in for a hug, which knocked Shuichi backwards to the floor.

“If you keep asking, I’ll change my mind.” He proceeded to cover more of his face with his hat.

“Please don’t!”

“I-I won’t…Can you get off now?”

“O-oh, right.” Kaede stood up and gave a hand to her compatriot to help him up as well. As she dusted herself off, she was struck with an idea. “We should start a band.”

“We should what?” Shuichi wasn’t looking at her when she said it (dusting himself off as well), but she had sparkles in her eyes as she repeated it.

“We should start a band!” She turned around, her skirt spinning from how fast she was going. “We can get everyone to play music together, and everyone will get closer! It’ll build a sense of trust, and we’ll all have fun!”

“I...Yeah, that sounds fun, Kaede.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how to end this chapter also. can you tell I play a string instrument


End file.
